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August 24, 2014

Majority Of Smartphone Owners Download No Apps During The Average Month

by Chuck Bednar

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

If you haven’t downloaded a smartphone app in a while, you’re not alone, as new research from internet analytics firm comScore indicates nearly two-thirds of mobile device users download zero pieces of software during the average month.

According to Quartz reporter Dan Frommer, 65.5 percent of smartphone owners said they downloaded zero apps during the average month, while 8.4 percent said that they downloaded one app per month and 8.9 percent answered they downloaded two.

Only 2.4 percent of those who responded to the survey said that they downloaded eight apps per month or more – surprising, considering that comScore also reported that apps now represent 52 percent of all time spent with digital media in the US (up from 40 percent in 2013). In addition, Frommer noted that Apple reported July was the best month ever for their App Store, both in terms of revenue and the number of people downloading apps.

Despite the download statistics, the comScore survey also found that over half of all smartphone owners use apps on their devices on a daily basis, explained Kevin C. Tofel of GigaOm. The reason for that is that nearly half of all download activity is done by just seven percent of all American mobile device owners, the study discovered.

“These are the app addicts, if you will. The rest of us just use what we already have on our phones, for the most part,” Tofel said. “At first, this scenario sounds odd. But when you think about it, it makes some sense. This is 2014, not 2008 when the mobile app economy was just starting to take off. When you start with a blank slate, there’s plenty of room for new apps to fill up your smartphone. These days, with more than a billion apps available from various mobile app stores, chances are that most of the new apps you see will give you a feeling of ‘been there, done that.’”

The comScore study seems to support that theory, as it claims that 42 percent of all time spent by smartphone users occurs with the individual’s single most used app, whatever that might be. New apps and games are always being released, Frommer explained, but those that truly connect with users are becoming exceedingly rare, and many of the apps topping the most-used list are from venerable companies such as Google, Pandora and Facebook.

Speaking of those most popular apps, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media network topped comScore’s list of the most frequently used apps, drawing 115.4 million unique American users in June, according to Quartz. Google apps YouTube (83.4 million), Google Play (72.2 million) and Google Search (70.2 million) take the next three spots, followed by Pandora (69 million) and two more Google apps, Google Maps (64.5 million) and Gmail (60.3 million).

“Another likely reason is that it’s still not easy enough to find and download new apps,” he added. “Apple’s App Store has received (deserved) criticism for its lousy discovery features, with users relying heavily on top-25 lists, a bad search engine, and few editorial features. This mostly helps the rich get richer, and makes it harder for clever new apps to get noticed. Apple is right to be proud of its app program – it has been one of the most important inventions in the history of software, and Google has done a decent job copying. But there is certainly room for improvement.”